Mostly battle reports of games of Warhammer 40k, and some hobby and tactics stuff as well.

Aug 30, 2013

1850p: Iron Hands vs Black Legion

Time for some battling again! Long time now...

So I basically just got a hold of some of the new Raptor models since I love them. And since I now have 10 of them I wanted to make a list using all of them. I threw in my bikes as well adding to the speed of the list.

On top of this I smacked on two Las-Preds because I loves them. And last time I played against IG I was annoyed about AV14. So hopefully this helps... even though I don't really know if I'm playing IG or Iron Hands at this point. Doesn't matter, Preds are always useful.

Defiler. Hasn't seen use in ages. But it should come in handy, so I threw it in there as well. So, with a lot of mech I decided to go for a Warpsmith as my general. Added some Cultists, a horde of CSM and also some CSM in a Rhino... and that was 1500p. However, we decided to go for 1850p instead so I switched it up a bit.

First, due to the extra points I decided to go Veterans on everything, as apparently you have to do that with the Black Legion supplement. I don't have it yet (since it's only available on Apple devices...) but decided that I wanted to see if it makes any impact on my list. Especially since I have Raptors, who for some reason pay 2p per model for this rule... anyway.

So with the extra points to spend... but all ready 3 Fast Attack and 3 Heavy Support slots taken, what to do? I added another HQ. I was debating about taking a Sorcerer or a Lord... Sorcerer is always useful, but I've used it a bit recently, so I decided to go for a Lord. He would run with the Horde and make them Fearless. That's pretty much his only job. With a bit of luck he gets to kill something as well.

Then I decided to add some Chosen with meltas who got the Rhino from the other CSM squad. Warpsmith will go here as well. And there we go!

Kind of odd army I think, and I'm really lacking in the anti-air department... which might be a huge mistake since my opponent just recently bought another Storm Talon meaning he might very well bring two... but alas, I'll have to deal with that as it comes. At least I have the twin-linked Lascannons on the Predators.

For anti-tank I feel very safe however, with pretty fast elements with meltas, as well as long range support. If there's a lot of tanks I'll probably deep strike the melta-Raptors as well. For crowd control I got the Defiler and Raptors with Flamers. And Chosen in assault I guess. As well as a large unit of CSM for some board control.

So we rolled for mission got Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike Deployment. I got to chose sides first, then he won the roll off to go first. No Night Fighting first turn. For the Gift of Mutation on my Lord I got +1 Armour Save, and I also got re-rolls for Boons as Warlordtrait. He got Move Through Cover and Stealth in Ruins for trait and rolled Iron Arm and Life Leach for powers.
He left most of his army in reserve as you probably guessed by the list. I left one squad of Cultists, 5 CSM and melta-Raptors in reserve. The 10 Cultists I brought to the table just to protect the backs of the Predators from Drop Pod-melta. Did the same with the large squad of CSM for the Defiler. His Techmeraine boosted the rocks in his deployment zone and my Warpsmith reduced cover from the large hill.
I didn't steal initiative.

Turn 1 - Iron Hands

So two Drop Pods come down, the Melta-pod scattered closer to the Defiler than intended and the Plasma-pod scattered quite a bit backwards.
Scouts moved up into a piece of ruins on their side to grab some cover. The rest basically stayed put.
Both the Melta and the Combi-melta failed to do anything to the Defiler (got a stunned which I ignored because of Daemonic Possession). It lives! The Plasma squad killed one biker, and something killed a Marine as well. Not a very good first turn!

Turn 1 - Chaos Space Marines

So I move up with Bikers on their side, follow with Cultists. The Predators move around as well to pick their targets. Defiler manages to get 2" forward, despite Move Through Cover and Fleet... My Flamer Raptors jump up to flame the melta-squad that just came out of the Drop Pod, killed one.
One Predator stunned the Dread, the other failed to kill a Drop Pod... The Defiler shot at the Devastators, got a good hit and killed 3 of them! Definitely helped to have that reduced cover there. They stayed put though.
Assault phase and I decided to charge the Plasma Marines with the Bikes and Cultists (Cultists first to draw Overwatch). Cultists failed but the Bikers came in. Biker Champion won his Challenge, and was turned into a Spawn for the trouble. The Raptors charged in, won the challenge (and got Hatred, yay since I all ready had it...) and killed all but one Marine. Still no First Blood.

Turn 2 - Iron Hands

Both Storm Talons came in, but the Assault Marines and the last Drop Pod stayed out.
Both Storm Talons shoot Assault Cannons and two missiles at the Defiler, but again all they manage is a stunned that I once again ignore. Something shot at one of my Predators and caused Snap shots for next round. Various shooting killed a couple of Marines as well. Still really bad rolls...
In assault phase my Raptors finished off the last Marine and got First Blood. The Bikers (who lost their Power Fist to Spawnhood...) fluffed and they stared against each other pretty much.

Turn 2 - Chaos Space Marines

All my reserves come in. The Cultists went for my Objective, the Five Marines for his annoying Scouts. Fired the plasma, got hot, died. Bah.
The Melta-Raptors landed next to the Predator without any scatter, but still failed to blow the tank up...
Everything else moved up except the Chosen Rhino who had nowhere to go, so they went for the closest Drop Pod and blew it up. One of the Predators blew the Dread up. The other one that was forced to shoot Snap Shots shot at one of the fliers and actually managed a hit, it was just locked velocity though.
In assault phase Cultists and Spawn charged in against the Plasma Marines. Pretty much nothing happened. A couple of Cultists died. Was probably a bad move charging them in, since they were actually killable... but the positioning of the units made it so he couldn't attack the Cultists with too many Marines anyway.

Turn 3 - Iron Hands

Assault Marines failed to show up, but the other Drop Pod arrived. It scattered pretty far off and ended up right in front of my CSM.
He killed off a couple of CSM, one Melta on the Raptors and not much more really. The combat in the woods was a stalemate still.

Turn 3 - Chaos Space Marines

My Flamer-Raptors jumped over the hill, the Sergeant died to dangerous terrain (...), my Lord with the CSM moved up towards the squad that came out from the Drop Pod and that was pretty much it for movement.
Predators had nothing else to shoot at, so they shot at the fliers, caused a HP on one, but was evaded anyway. The Melta-Raptors managed to blow up the Predator, but the explosion killed the remaining Melta... Flamer-Raptors flamed the Tacticals and killed one.
CSM charged the Scouts and Lord with CSM charged the Tacticals. Raptors charged the Tacticals. CSM Champion killed the Scout Sergeant (don't remember the reward, something not too useful), the never-ending story in the forest continued to be a stalemate.
I decided to challenge with my Lord in the fight in the middle, because I wanted to stay in combat for next round. So easily killed his Sergeant (which granted me Instant Death melee-attacks). However, my CSM were hungry and killed half the squad who failed their morale and ran away(!). Raptors did amazing as well, and caused 7 wounds... of which he failed three saves... and they ran off as well! Taking the Warlord with them...

Turn 4 - Iron Hands

Assault Marines finally came in. They scattered 12 inches... and ended up right in front of my Lord with his retinue. One Storm Talon turned around to shoot at Raptors (killed a couple), the other aimed to get off the board to be able to come back and shoot at Cultists next turn. Tacticals moved up to try and get to the Objective and the Techmarine positioned himself to charge the lone remaining Flamer-Raptor.
A bit out of order that, but his shooting basically killed all but one Raptor in each squad.
In the forest he managed to kill one Biker! And they actually ran away! But since the Spawn was there being Fearless they couldn't be run down at least. The Techmarine charge the Raptor and they stared at each other for a round. My CSM finished off his Scouts.

Turn 4 - Chaos Space Marines

Bikers rallied, failed to kill the Drop Pod. Chosen failed to kill Drop Pod. Predators failed to do anything.
Defiler however had a nice clumped up squad of Assault Marines in front of him since they shot last turn. Pieplate placement was obvious, all though a bit risky due to my Lord being so close. But of course I did it. And I hit, killed 6 Marines outright. There we go.
Lord charged in, killed the Sergeant and got D3+1 rolls on the table... of which I rolled 3. So he got +1BS, +1T and Poisoned CC attacks. Quite a beast by now... the rest of the CSM wiped the remaining Assault Marines. The Tech Marine killed the Raptor, and the other Raptor died to Overwatch when he charged the Tacticals.

Turn 5 - Iron Hands

One Storm Talon flew off the table, the other went down into Hover mode and finally killed the Defiler. Tacticals bunched up on the Objective, and the fight in the forest continued...

Turn 5 - Chaos Space Marines

Bikers failed to kill Drop Pod, Chosen killed their Drop Pod. Predator blew up the Storm Talon. And finally the Lord and his CSM charged the Tacticals who had joined up with the Techmarine. And in the final challenge he won once again, and as a reward he got Eternal Warrior (pretty fitting me thinks). And the rest of the squad went down as well, in another round of ridiculous failed saves (he failed like 5 out of 7 wounds or something, just enough to almost wipe out the squad...).
We rolled to see if the game ended and it did. So one Objective for me, and all three secondaries. 6-0 CSM victory!

Lessons Learnt

Okay, the beginning of this game was a bit silly. Neither of us could make any rolls... we were clearly out of practice for dice rolling! At least my rolls started to get more average after half the game, but his rolls continued to be abysmal... 3+ armour just didn't work.
The fact that my Defiler lived to turn 5 is amazing. I think it's a first for me. It usually dies in turn 2 the latest. Usually in turn 1 and gives up First Blood... but this game I actually got to use it, and it did really well I think. Especially in combination with the Warpsmiths Shatter Defences ability. Really neat!
The Warpsmith and the Chosen... they ended up in the backfield and kind of got stuck back there. It wasn't for nothing though, as had they not been there he would probably have Deep struck his Assault Marines on my side of the table instead to clear out those Cultists. So the Chosen kind of ended up as guards in a odd way. Too bad I don't have the Black Legion supplement yet, else they'd be Scoring as well. Certainly useful.
And then the man of the match... my Lord for sure. He just killed everything he touched. Quite a beast after all those Boons. 2+ armour, Poisoned Instant Death melee attacks, BS6, T5 and Eternal Warrior. Yikes. Imagine of that was his standard profile!
But... while that's fun when it works out, the Bikers showed it sucks when it doesn't... I charged the Marines in the forest counting on my Power Fist to do the trick in round two of the combat... but no, instead I got a Spawn... Champion of Chaos is such a annoying rule sometimes... That's not new though, I took a risk when I bought that Power Fist.
My Predators were pretty useless this game. I think between them they killed a dread. But I guess as far as match ups go they didn't really have so many good targets here. At least they're still cheap and they did draw some fire so it's okay. I still love them.
Pretty weird game, and too bad for the Iron Hands. Probably the last game with the old codex! But I guess that means they'll be back with a vengeance soon!